Localized Marketing: Definition and How to Build a Successful Strategy

Localized marketing, or marketing localization, is the process of adapting a marketing campaign to the culture and language of a particular location or demographic.

When you’re expanding to foreign markets, translation often won’t be enough to support your international marketing activities. In order to succeed, you must be aware of how the local economies, legal systems, social norms, and purchasing habits differ from one market to the next. Additionally, buyers in new areas are more likely to appreciate your brand if you take the time to genuinely grasp what matters to them.

In this post, we provide four tips that will help you maximize your marketing localization.

Invest in quality localization services

Before you start planning the localization of your marketing strategy, it is crucial to understand the difference between localization and translation. 

Localization is the process of tailoring a product or service to the language and culture of customers in a target market. When done right, it allows the product or service to connect with customers in a way that feels natural to them. In addition to translating written content from one language into another, localization involves many other tasks, such as customizing written content to local tastes and preferences, abiding by legal obligations and customs, using local formats for addresses and dates, displaying the appropriate currency, and more.

So, if you want to succeed with marketing localization, your best bet is to invest in quality localization services. Localization services are the product of a collaborative effort in which numerous professionals offer their knowledge and experience to support your company’s localization objectives. These specialists include linguists, programmers, UX and UI designers, as well as specialists in local marketing.

Optimize your website and create localized social media accounts

Localizing your social media accounts and your website should be a key concern when developing marketing strategies.

When it comes to social media, the famous “one language fits all” approach is not the greatest option. Instead, consider creating a separate social media account for each target market. For instance, forget about using Facebook to promote to Chinese consumers if you’re seeking to break into that market because it has been blocked in China since 2009. Social media users in the country are mostly using Weibo, Douyin, and WeChat.

In addition, if you want to advertise your products to a global audience, you’ll need to localize your website. This is the best way to ensure a positive shopping experience for the target consumer, which is essential to the success of the marketing campaigns.

Work with local influencers

Partnering with local influencers to help introduce your product to a new market may be one of the most effective localization marketing strategies. Statistics show that 61% of consumers trust product recommendations from influencers. In addition, it’s a simple way to reach out to a large number of potential customers. 

When building an influencer marketing strategy, make sure it aligns with your objectives. Think about what results you expect from the particular channel and always decide on your KPIs before beginning the campaign. Keep in mind that different markets respond to influencer marketing differently, so be sure to have an open mind about what works in the specific market.

For best results, consider choosing a micro-influencer to work with (i.e. an influencer who has a social media presence bigger than that of a normal person but smaller than a celebrity, somewhere between 1,000 and 100k followers). 

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

Measure your results

Make sure to analyze the results of your localized marketing initiatives and try out fresh approaches to audience engagement on a regular basis.

Hearing directly from your local customers is the best method to gain feedback on your initiatives. Sending a post-purchase email sequence that asks customers to fill in a feedback form, running focus groups to learn how your audience feels about your recent marketing campaign, and posting social media polls are some efficient ways to gather customer feedback.

Finally, don’t limit yourself to localized marketing. Think about ways you can meet local customers’ needs and expectations. For instance, providing customer service in your target market’s native language is a great way to increase brand awareness and boost customer satisfaction. 

Final thoughts

Succeeding in a new market is only possible if you can effectively interact with your target audience. For this reason, you need to take all the necessary steps to ensure that your brand, products, and marketing strategy suit local tastes and preferences. This calls for great business and marketing content translation as well as business adaptation to account for local culture, religion, beliefs, expectations, and other factors.

Implement localized marketing for your company using the tips above, and then continually hone your strategies to retain their efficacy.

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